In Times of Trouble
by PurpleMoon3
Summary: An angel and a frost giant fall through space. Drabbles. Now with more Q.
1. Chapter 1

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

**Disclaimer: _Thor_ is the property of MARVEL and various others that are not the author of this drabble collection. _Supernatural_, and Gabriel, are the delightfully depressing brain-baby of Eric Kripke and the CW.**

**A/N: I have challenged myself to fill a prompt on norsekink utilizing drabbles only. That is aprox. 100 word entries. And quotes. Because I love looking up quotes. **

_"The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families."_

-Jay McInerney

They were falling in opposite directions, through a place long since forgotten. It was a no-place, a between-place, the hazy fog that lies just before birth and death, between wake and sleep, a place where the impossible became probable.

One Loki fell, his failure weighing on his heart like a leaden coffin.

One Loki fell, his failure nothing compared to the freeing feeling of making a choice and taking a stand for something that _he_ believed in and _he_ wanted.

They were falling in opposite directions, what was up for one was down for the other, yet in the infinite improbability of the Between they collided.


	2. Chapter 2

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship."_  
-Markus Zusah

It is hard to describe what happens when to intangible, dimensionally transcendental beings collide. Gabriel thinks he might be able to do it if he had a white board, some graphs, and an audience with a reasonable grasp of string theory and quantum mechanics. Loki thinks explaining anything to people who can't see the situation and work it out for themselves is a waste of time. They both agree that the situation is a ridiculous mess.

"Feathers, really?" Loki says incredulously as he coughs up soft down made of gossamer and grace.

Gabriel is just trying to reorient himself, a difficult task when one has four heads. "Not all of us feel the need to compensate, _cow._"

Loki bursts into giggles, then hacks as he inhales loose feathers.


	3. Chapter 3

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."_  
-Lao Tzu

Once they've disentangled, each Loki's bits to their own, there's a moment of contemplation. Gabriel is dead to his world. The effort to throw himself out of existence to keep his brother from suspecting tossed him past Purgatory and into the Nothing. Likewise, those who knew him -or thought they did- believe Loki to have perished. If he remained in his physical form that would be true, but a last minute shifting of his essence to a parallel plane of existence saved him from death.

The dead have no commitments, no pressing duties, and all of Creation is spread out before them. The perfect distraction.


	4. Chapter 4

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

**A/N- This chapter was 156 words. Which ruins the challenge I set for myself but I can't see getting what I wanted into it in any smaller amount. And I'm pretty sure different books record different angels performing the same biblical disasters but as my _Dictionary of Angels_ has Gabriel down as a killer of giants I figured he can be the cause of Noah's flood.  
**

_"All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair."_  
-Mitch Albom

Loki steps onto the desolation of Jotunheim, a quiet numbness taking over. Though he claims not to read minds but hearts, and though he denies it Loki is certain Gabriel -Loki of another time and place- used magic to nudge the die in Jotunheim's favor, the winged man says Loki needs _closure_. All Loki can see is a land of monsters that has been decimated. Ruin wrought by a monster's hand. His hand.

Loki expects words measured for guilt, shame, and repentance. Instead Gabriel take three large balls of snow and stacks them. He summons a green scarf from the ether.

Loki's pinched eyes and clenched fists ask what his voice is too clogged with emotion to articulate.

"I once flooded all of Midgard on my Father's order." An orange vegetable is thrust into the topmost snow ball. "It was before your grandfather's time."

Loki gives the dumpy thing eyes that burn like embers.


	5. Chapter 5

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."_

-Robert Frost

If the local population was a bit bigger, Gabriel might have shifted his form to match, but it seemed the Rainbow Bridge of Death left the area they were exploring fairly vacant. Those few who caught sight of the tricksters fled.

_Destroyer _reached them on hissed whispers of wind.

Giants had once been native to earth. Then Dad got annoyed about something-or-other and sent Gabriel down. They'd fled to the coldest reaches of space and evolved, but nothing else had memory like a Jotun, and their oral histories were very thorough.

So a Loki taught Loki, and two arctic wolves scrambled across the cliffs, howling.


	6. Chapter 6

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

**A/N- And this chapter marks the end of Loki and Gabriel's adventures in Jotunheim.  
**

_"Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist."_  
-Karen Horney

Loki turns the sword in his hand, follows the line of etched flames on the edge, and with a flick of his wrist folds it away into air and shadow. They have wrested Surtur's -or as Gabriel knows it Azrael's- sword from Jotunheim's depths. Ironic, that without Loki's attack the artifact would likely still be lost.

The adventure's success is not as sweet as anticipated. Loki glances toward the cocoa slurping Gabriel. "You wish to make a... film?"

"Porno."

"A musical pornographic film."

"Why not? With your looks and my me-ness, _awesome_."


	7. Chapter 7

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom."  
-Anatole France_

They recruit female fire giants from Muspel, and a group of elvish musicians. The giants have glowing red skin and will, Gabriel assures him, contrast with Jotun blue nicely. Loki agrees but he still isn't sure why he's the one playing the Princess.

It's worth it, though, when Gabriel shows up in his carefully researched Airship Pirate outfit and matching crewmen constructs. The elves are oddly enthusiastic and the script goes through no less than twenty-three revisions and isn't until the musical score meets their considerable elven standard that filming starts.

When _The Jotun Bride_ becomes a meme Gabriel declares victory. It is glorious.


	8. Chapter 8

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"The trick is growing up without growing old." _

-Casey Stengel_  
_

"Gabriel!" Loki shouted, running into what was on the outside an abandoned shack. "Gabriel, get changed! We're going to be late!"

Gabriel looked up from his Dr. Sexy rerun as Loki, resplendent in full Asgardian armor, blocked the television screen. All four feet five of him.

"Why are you kiddified?" The renegade angel asked, dumbly, because he preferred his fellow trickster with long legs and cheek bones that could cut diamonds. At the moment he rather felt like pinching one.

"_Why aren't you?_!" Loki was practically bouncing with frantic energy. "'Tis _Hallows Eve_, when mortals _must_ pay tribute to our magnificence. _Trick or Treat_."


	9. Chapter 9

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary." _

-William S. Burroughs_  
_

He could have broken each treat down to it's basic elements and found no difference between that which his grace shaped from the firmament, and that which was won from blissfully ignorant mortals. And yet the sugary bribes that landed in his pillowcase were that little bit sweeter.

But not all humans followed the Social Contract, and Gabriel could remember when failing to mask oneself on the appointed night meant a painful death. Was it so much to ask for one little sugary, processed snack?

"Lokes, tell me this isn't a fucking orange." Gabriel stated as he held the offending fruit away from his toga. The wire halo attached to his head bobbled indignantly.

"Technically, it's a clementine." Loki glared at the slammed door, pulp dripping from his clenched fist.

"You realize what this means."

"_Trick._"


	10. Chapter 10

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Marriage: A friendship recognized by the police." _

-Robert Louis Stevenson

_"As you can see, Jim, the creature kids have dubbed_ His Lordship The Great Pumpkin _continues its rampage undeterred. However, like blood smeared across the door frame, one thing that seems to stop this Terror of the Season seems to be an offering of candy left on the doorstep. Of course, authorities hesitate to use anything stronger than riot gas. Children have been seen marching behind the menace, high on sugar and demanding the cessation of healthy snacks, gym, and bed times._

_"Experts agree the ringleaders behind this Children's Crusade appears to be two little boys, one dressed as an angel and the other some kind of warrior..."_

Fury's eyebrow twitched as he turned from the television back to the meeting room. He was going to regret this. "Coulson, assemble the Avengers."


	11. Chapter 11

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." _

-Marc Brown

Thor thought his heart might have stopped when he landed before the enchanted vegetable wreaking havoc among the mortals. Several men and women were screaming from where they dangled in the creature's viney grip, served as mere background when Thor caught sight of the small dark haired child arguing with a skeleton in a top hat.

"Loki." Far too tiny to be the brother he had fought on the Rainbow Bridge, but memories of playing together in Idunn's garden insisted it was so. "Loki!"

Thor charged forward, leaping over milling mob of chocolate smeared younglings, but before he could reach his sorely missed brother a great leafy limb slammed into his chest and tossed him into a conveniently placed convenience store.

He missed the other child, wings flapping, fists pumping in victory. "TEN POINTS!"


	12. Chapter 12

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man." _

-Henry B. Adams

Tony Stark was very, very glad he'd never lost a paternity suit. He was also completely certain that children were evil. Or just insane. He was positive he'd never been like the mob of brats pelting the little carrot shaped orange things nobody eats at him.

"In da name ah da King!" A tiny Elphaba screamed as she broke formation, weaving between limbs the size of tree trunks, only to start swatting Iron Man with her toy broom.

"_Mother Fucker!_" Iron Man's speakers projected quite clearly, resulting in a lull in the battle as Captain America glared disapproval.

Despite his beyond cutting edge tech, Tony completely missed Sexy Witch of a MILF and the ridiculously heavy flashlight that managed to dent his armor. "DO NOT TALK THAT WAY AROUND MY BABY!"


	13. Chapter 13

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"I never wanted a Guardian Angel. I didn't ask for one. One was assigned to me." _

-Mercedes McCambridge

Loki barely managed to talk Baron Saturday* down from Loki's first born to ten Kit-Kats and a kitten in exchange for uncontested Right of Passage through the Baron's territory when someone shouted his name. Twice. Loki and the miniaturized Baron spat into their hands before shaking to seal the deal while the modern idols fought.

Loki glanced away from his throngs of followers in time to witness several vines twist together in a drill like shape, aimed at a man he once called brother.

Loki thought he should feel _something._ Anger, or sadness. Longing? _Joy?_ Perspective did funny things to the heart. Still, a thousand years of history was hard to forget.

And Loki did owe him one.

The air shimmered as Loki displaced himself to Thor's side, and as the drill shot down the trickster snapped his fingers.

*AKA Baron Samedi


	14. Chapter 14

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum."_  
-Rick Riordan

The force of the Great Pumpkin exploding was enough to send Loki, so close to the center of the blast, off his feet and into something hard and chest shaped. Jolly Ranchers and O'Henry's fell like rain as a pair of well muscled if bruised arms tightened around Loki. Loki squirmed. "We're square, now. Let go."

"No." Thor growled, grip becoming almost painful. "We... you are...no matter what transformations have occurred, we are brothers, and I'm taking you _home_."

"LET ME GO!" Loki screamed, twisting as his nails began to lengthen. "I'm warning you, Thor..."

"Hey, Ass-Gard!" Gabriel's voice lanced across the street. His cherubic cheeks were red as he waved a lollipop like a rapier. "Quit man-handling my soul mate!"


	15. Chapter 15

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."_  
-Oscar Wilde

In the blink of an eye Gabriel considered and discarded a hundred ways to hurt Thor.

Physical pain was out. Physical torture could be ignored with a little mental preparation and gritting your teeth. Even the sorry sack of determined self-loathing that was Winchester the Elder held out for thirty years in a never-ending deluge. What had really broken him was the intimate knowledge of being unable to fight back: pinned down in hell you couldn't even die to escape.

So Gabriel grinned. He grew with each step, form shedding the appearance of childhood, and with a twirl of his lollipop he ripped a wormhole open behind the entangled deities.


	16. Chapter 16

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"Anything you lose automatically doubles in value."_  
-Mignon McLaughlin

Thor recalled Loki's child-self twisting in his arms, and instead of the familiar illusions of light and sound a living, breathing, _biting _Loki-Wolf had fought free before the whirling blue took the Thunderer. Without his hammer.

There was sand at his feet and a hot sun over head. Desert for miles in all directions. Thor began to walk, and hoped he would come to a settlement soon and so get back to his long-missing brother, comrades, and the being that dare claim Loki for its own.

Thor stumbled as the sand beneath him trembled, and a woman's voice carried on the wind: _The Spice Must Flow_.


	17. Special AU Halloween Edition

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

**-Special AU Halloween Edition-**

**A/N- This particular chapter is an alternate universe in which Gabriel and Loki passed out after leading a march to demand an end to sugar-free candy that required Avengers to break it up. Thor took the opportunity to drag Loki home. (Relatively) Regularly scheduled drabbles will return next week.  
**

_"People can do great things. However, there are some things they just CAN'T do. I, for instance, have not been able to transform myself into a Popsicle, despite years of effort."_

-Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

The news of Prince Thor returning early from his sojourn to Midgard surprised the court, and was in fact a pleasant surprise for the Lady Sif who took his arrival as a bit of good fortune for her own aspirations. Thor's whirlwind romance with the mortal Jane was quite the fodder for the rumor mill, and many believed it to be the principal reason he kept returning to the small planet. She was a strong and wise, for a mortal, a proper witch who would soon master inter-realm travel for her world and so make a good and worthy match for the Thunder God. Especially considering their own BiFrost's current state making the movement of large armies impossible, and individuals or small groups a trial.

The news of what Prince Thor carried home with him was an even bigger surprise, and one the Lady Sif did not care for. She had made her feelings on the event known by suggesting an immediate trial for the foundling prince, but her arguments died in her throat when she caught sight of the small jotun.

Thor clutched his sleeping brother protectively to his chest as Frigga turned steely eyes on the swordsman. The Thunder shook his head. "No."

"Aye." Odin remarked, quiet, as his single eye on the mop of dark curls that let out a soft sigh before nuzzling closer to Thor's neck. "There will be no trial. If you recall, Lady Sif, I announced a general pardon shortly after Thor's return. This is the reason you and your cohorts are not currently in chains and mucking out the royal stables for the next ten years."

Sif's mouth clicked shut as Volstagg pushed past her and peered down at the twin bundles in Thor's arms. "Goodness, they're not much bigger than my Gudrun!"

"How has he gotten so small? What is wrong with him?!" Frigga persisted, fingers twitching as though she longed to snatch one son from the other. "Why does he not wake?"

"As to the first question, it is beyond my ken. As to the second…" Thor shifted uncomfortably and tried to pass Volstagg his second burden but the other boy squirmed in his sleep and further attached himself to Loki, a single wing flailing and slapping the voluminous warrior in the face. Volstagg chuckled. "Clint believed it to be something called a s_ugar-crash_, something that follows a period of high energy due to the ingesting of sweets. He claimed to have witnessed his fair share growing up. I have been assured is not life threatening, mother."

Frigga was not appeased, and crept closer, eyes flicking between the comatose bundles.

"And what of the other one?" Hogun spoke softly, yet his voice cut through the mutterings and speculations like a knife. The one in question sneezed in his sleep, and a strange, sweet-smelling white powered drifted off his wings.

Thor's face screwed up; a mixture of confusion and concern as he remembered the creatures the other boy had conjured while Loki led his small army of equally intoxicated followers. Frigga used Thor's lapse in concentration to steal the children, her gown proving no hindrance as she swooped in to claim the children before fleeing as fast as a retired warrior-maid could. Thor pouted, arms suddenly feeling useless and empty. Father and son watched as the matriarch vanished behind a turn.

Typical Frigga.

"He claimed to be." Thor's expression again twisted as though he had just swallowed a random handful of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. "He claimed to be Loki's 'brother from another mother.'"


	18. Chapter 18

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

"_Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love."_

-George Eliot_  
_

Gabriel TiVo'd the broadcast.

They sit around a flat screen that covers an entire wall, lounging on pillows like harem girls, Loki wearing a creamy gold robe and nothing else as he plays with Dog's ears. A corner of his mouth is flecked with chocolate. On the television Captain America's shield becomes lodged in the Pumpkin King's head, and the mini-Tricksters rally their troops.

It had been fun. More than.

Gabriel thinks of Thor, and grins viciously at the thought of what the godling will soon experience. It's petty and unbecoming of an angel, but Gabriel is also a pagan god.

So he leans over and swipes the bit of chocolate with his tongue, making Loki squeal with laughter, and pins his best friend's body with his own.


	19. Chapter 19

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural Crossover**

_"A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on."_

-William S. Burroughs_  
_

The WSC was demanding answers. Fury doesn't have any to give them. Their resident Alien/Deity/Prince is still missing, and the two Hostiles(?) vanished like motherfucking, shin-kicking Cinderellas at midnight leaving behind nothing but a ridiculous amount of candy and over-hyped kids.

Coulson had been in charge of debrief the children -Fury was starting to suspect the man was some kind of mutant to be able to handle kids that well- which got them the only information SHIELD had to go on. The boys were Tricksters, capital 'T', one of which was Thor's missing and presumed -though not anymore- dead brother. The same brother who sent a giant metal robot to Thor.

Thor was missing.

"Director, the Cardiff Observatory is reporting weather anomalies approximately twenty miles west of us."

The WSC weren't the only ones looking for answers Fury didn't have.


	20. Chapter 20

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Stark Trek Crossover**

**Further Disclaimer: Created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, and all incarnations thereof, belong to CBS.  
**

_"I believe if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party."_  
-Ron White

Q had a plan. A spectacular, brilliant, unfailing plan to repay Jean-Luc for Q's restoration to Q-ness and get a laugh or two at the same time. Only, Vash was seducing Gisbourne and Riker was the _worst_ Little John.

Humans.

At least he was still getting his chuckles, and they _really_ knew how to roast in twelfth century earth. A flash of light, a ripple in reality, and Q dropped his chicken wing to turn to his newest visitors. "You aren't any Q I've met before."

Intriguing.

The dark haired one was looking around at the stone and mortar with something that might have been nostalgia. The other, lighter, one grinned and with a snap of his fingers adjusted his clothing to the setting.

"Heard you're the God of Lies on Brax. Loki here thought we might have something in common."


	21. Chapter 21

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Stark Trek Crossover**

_"Silence make the real conversation between friends. Not the saying, but the never needing to say that counts."_  
-Margaret Lee Runbeck

It gets lonely being Q, doubly so when you are what passes for a trickster among the ageless, eternal, undying and unchanging race. For ages uncounted Q had traveled the cosmos with Q, had his dalliances, even picked up a companion or two with which to see it all through a new pair of eyes. But though she could be possessive Q was not Q, cared for the opinions of the other Continuum with far more seriousness than was necessary, and at times could not, simply could not appreciate Q's brilliance.

The companions, too, grew tired of Q and left or being mortal died. Q respected them too much to rewrite reality and prolong the inevitable. If he so desired, he could skip through time and revisit those few honored individuals in various guises.

But it wasn't the same.

So he didn't.

Really, Q mused as the shorter trickster arched an eyebrow and offered a lick from his Push-Pop, there was no question. But it was the casual sling of a leather-clad arm over his shoulder reminded Q why so many species preferred the physical existence.


	22. Chapter 22

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Stark Trek Crossover**

_"Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction."_  
-Marcus Zusak, The Book Theif

It would be pointless to pit the Aesir up against another race. Not, Loki explains, because they are innately superior to most other races. Simply, the Aesir would welcome a war, and even should they come up against a force that outclassed them by light years there would be honor and glory to the gorey end. Gabriel concurred, sighting the ultimate stickiness of his own Nordic pantheon.

It took a little maneuvering of heavenly bodies, seconds to a mortal's perception of time, and then Gabriel was using his bat to knock the mud from his cleats, spitting a pink wad of Big League into the dirt, and taking a practice swing.

Q shook his head in the negative most seriously as his catcher called for a fastball. No one, not even Q, was faster than the Messenger.

"Hey, batter-batter! Saa-_Wing_ batter batter!" Loki cat-called from the bleachers, stomping his feet to music with no source.

Q threw a curve that connected with the bat and tore a hole through time-space. It was a home run.

The score board showed a meteor headed right for Heimdall's rebuilt observatory.

The crowed went wild.

(Loki somehow lost his shirt, and after rounding the bases Gabriel phased right through the fence behind home plate to probe Loki's mouth with his tongue.)


	23. Chapter 23

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"To learn about you is frankly provocative, but you're next of kin to chaos."_

-Captain Picard, Q Who_  
_

It was a little sad to say that when Jean-Luc retreated to his ready-room after a, frankly, too-long discussion with the irritable Captain of a Mining Freighter, he felt very little surprise to see an unknown someone perched on his desk, flipping through his PADD*. Still, he tapped his comm, "Captain to Security, Intruder Alert."

Eyes like emeralds turned to look at him while pink lips twitched into a pout. "I rather wish you wouldn't."

"Then I must know who you are and how you bypassed our security."

A princely eyebrow arched. "I Walked." The man shook himself, like a dog throwing off water, and smiled beguiling. "But enough about me. Did you know Q's never gotten a Yule Gift? This is a travesty that simply _must_ be rectified. Won't you help me, Dear Captain?"

*Special thanks to Nemi-Chan's Stark Trek geekdom, which surpasses my own.


	24. Chapter 24

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water- it will make ripples throughout the entire pond…"_

- Jessy and Bryan Matteo

Shopping for omnipotent beings was really, super, ridiculously hard. Gabriel learned this almost immediately after sending Loki off with his Horn of Truth. Loki could get just about anywhere within a single dimension on his own power, but he needed a little help to breech the walls separating realities, and when searching for the right gift they couldn't afford to be hampered in such a way.

Besides, it wasn't like Gabriel was using it.

And there was something ironically hilarious about a God of Lies utilizing a Weapon of Truth.

Back to the problem at hand: what do you get a person who, with a snap, could have anything his heart desired?

"Well," Gabriel mused aloud as he flashed through existence as a series of multidimensional wavelengths. "It's the thought that counts, right?"


	25. Chapter 25

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."_

-Jack London_  
_

Fury decided to count it as a blessing that that Aesir had only sent a small force to Earth. Three men, two with faces more suited to smiles and carefree laughter, had arrived a whirl of storm clouds and dark energy. Fury was not at all impressed by Bruce Lee's glower.

"We come seeking news of Thor, Man of Fury. Gatekeeper Heimdall can no longer see the Prince, and last we knew he had offered his arms to your band of Shield Brothers." The accusation in the statement was unmistakable.

"Now, Hogun..." Robin Hood called, a restraining hand resting on the other's shoulder.

"I was kinda hoping you would know." Fury responded. "And as I understood the technicolor transporter had been fixed."


	26. Chapter 26

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy." _

-Benjamin Franklin

The being that had, eventually, introduced itself as Loki of Nowhere in Particular was just as confounding as Q, if markedly less destructive. He hoped the being found what he was looking for, if only so that he wouldn't be inclined to interfere on their missions again. Though admittedly Loki's presence had been rather... helpful.

Jean-Luc tapped his fingers against the arm of his new, unasked for Captain's chair. He tried not to look to smug while fighting the urge to slouch in his good-bye present, legs spread.

He wondered what the current going rate for a gold-pressed latinum* chair -throne, more like- was. Not that he was going to keep it. First Federation Star Base they reached it was going to be removed for study and the standard model put right back in. But first...

"Mr. Data, lay in a course for the nearest starbase. The scenic route, I think, passing by Ferenginar."

*Autocorrect is a vile thing that insists on Picard's chair being made of Platinum. But it isn't. Except when it is.


	27. Chapter 27

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Supernatural, Star Trek, Thor Crossover**

**A/N- So after a break I've determined that this fic also needs an appearance of JiM!Loki. Onwards!**

_"Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered."_

_-_Graham Greene

Gabriel had briefly considered the planet Midnight as an ideal Yule Gift, but only briefly for no matter how entertaining a non-corporeal voice thieving murderous entity was if Q wished for a planet sized diamond he could easily will it into existence himself. Such materialistic gifts showed an unimaginative boorishness that appalled the Trickster within.

That, and there was also the matter of the only living creature to escape one of Gabriel time loops having been present at the time of consideration.

Gabriel shook his head, or what was momentarily passing for his head, as he drifted along the edges of space and time, riding the ripples of the Vortex. It was his position on the borderlands that alerted him to the disturbance: like a great many people had been in a ballpark doing the wave until one group of snooty jerks refused to stand and so ruined the revelry for everyone.

It was a whisper, a scream, a promise, a warning and a threat all rolled into one: _Everything Burns._

Gabriel wheeled around, following the message back to its source.


	28. Chapter 28

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl, 'Cause it hurts like hell." _

-David Bowie, Underground

Gabriel's physical form spins into existence as he blasts into what feels, physically and metaphorically, like a furnace. When he tastes the air it has that slight tang to it that speaks to the Norse side of him, and _Everything Burns_. Armies in fire-wreathed armor clash with known and unknown Aesir, Dwarves, Elves and Drow and races too numerable to bother counting all across the nine realms.

Because he is an Arc Angel, Gabriel knows how this story ends. The Grimm and Disney version.

Neither will be particularly fun.

Gabriel picks out his opposite number amongst the throng and crashes down. A boy and bird stare at him, at the island of silence he has enforced around them. The boy could pass for his Loki's very close kin. Brother, perhaps? He lacks Loki's cheekbones. Gabriel smiles disarmingly and waves.

"Hey Lokes, mind telling me what Surtur is doing out of time-out?"


	29. Chapter 29

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate." _

-Linda Grayson

Loki wouldn't have been ashamed to admit that when the strange, short man landed -scattering quite a few in-battled warriors- he had felt intimidated. The man was not covered in muscles or bristling with weapons, but for those who had the eyes for it he _dripped _raw magical power. And, as Loki himself did not recognize the man, it could only have been his Older-Evil self that knew him. Most of those that knew Ikol were not on friendly terms.

But the man wasn't using the opportunity of the world ending to get past Thor and take vengeance. Ikol looked perplexed, as much as a magpie could.

The man smiled, snapped his fingers, and handed Loki a chocolate milkshake. Loki recognized a bribe when he saw one. He sipped at the straw. "I don't mean to be rude, but who are you, again?" Perhaps they were allies of a sort? Though raised its own problems...

The answer was given with enough flair and dramatics to do any Loki proud: "Why, I am GABRIEL! Archangel of the LORD! Supreme messenger of GOD! And chaser of mortal and immortal tail of heavenly decree.*"

* * *

*Gabriel's introduction was first read in a fanfic by Madam Mimm. I stole it, with permissions, because it is just too perfect.


	30. Chapter 30

**In Times of Trouble**

**A Thor, Supernatural, Star Trek Crossover**

_"It is not down in any map; true places never are." _

-Herman Melville

Gabriel, for all that he enjoys cunning, twisted, soap-opera caliber plots, is a simple creature. The world(s) is burning and the suggestion that is the barrier between realities has dangerously thinned. If he lived in an episode of Buffy –which he tried, once, and Sam made a perfect Dawn- this was the point where some old English guy would furiously clean his glasses and try to figure out the plural form of Apocalypse.

But life isn't a TV episode that wraps up in 20-45 minute bow. But, sometimes, it doesn't have to be. And, sometimes, because a father left the back-door programmers' codes to the universe where his curious children would reach them, it is _better_.

Gabriel scoops up bb!Loki and places him on his hip. Loki is tall for his age, and Gabriel is short, so all together they look like an awkward tangle of limbs but with wings to shield them Priority One is secured. Gabriel twists his fingers and dances away, ignoring the indignant cries of his passenger.

(And the bird. He will do something about the bird –_ later. _Gabriel knows stories, too.)

He weaves amongst the warring parties, and with a breath of minty freshness time is re-woven.


End file.
